THE AMATEUR SPORTSMAN. l^^-^^^ ^^^-^ 
THE NORTHERN FOX SQUIRREL. 
BY THAD. SURBEk, 
The Northern fox squirrfel {Sct-uri(s ludovicianus vici- 
nus Bangs), like others of our small mammals, is fast 
being exterminated, and I venture to say that in the 
course of a few years will be wholly extirpated. At one 
time this fine squirrel ranged from northern Virginia 
north to central New York and Southern New England, 
and west through Pennsylvania and a part, if not nearly 
ail of West Virginia, but it is now restricted to a few 
localities in Pennsylvania, Virginia and the AUeghanies 
of West Virginia. 
In a paper recently published, Outram Bangs thus 
describes this handsome and interesting subspecies : 
" Size somewhat larger than S. ludovicianus typicus 
(Western fox squirrel). Ears never white ; nose some- 
times white ; usual color of upper parts a mixed black 
and rusty, the hairs banded with black and pale ferru- 
ginous ; under parts pale ferruginous to rusty white ; 
under surface of tail ferruginous, the hairs with often a 
subapical bend. Ears ferruginous, and in Winter well 
tufted. Some specimens are much lighter in color, being 
yellowish gray above, with the black bandings of the 
hairs reduced to a minimum ; the belly white, and the 
under surface of the tail pale ferruginous. Some others 
have a good deal of black on the head, belly and legs, but 
I have never seen a wholly black individual." (Squirrels 
of Eastern N. A. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., pp. 150-1). 
Five specimens taken in this vicinity during Septem- 
ber, 1897, give the following average measurements : 
Length (end of nose to end of tail vertebrae), 577.6 ; Tail 
(vertebra?), 274 ; hind foot, 77 millimeters. The largest 
specimen, a fine old male, measures: Length, 600 ; tail, 
302 ; hind foot, 75 millimeters. 
I have handled a few of these squirrels in the past few 
years, and have secured a few nice ones this year, but, 
what is far better, I have been enabled to learn some- 
thing of its habits by actual observation. 
However, I have not yet been able to learn the num- 
ber of young produced at a litter by this species, but they 
must breed very slowly, otherwise we might expect them 
to be more plentiful. Two adult females collected by me 
during this Fall have each had eight well- developed 
mamma?. 
In this part of their range, at least, they are found in- 
habiting the large groves of oak, chestnut and hickory, 
where there are very large trees and no undergrowth, 
and they seem to prefer the edges of such bodies of tim- 
ber. They are very wild, and as diflQcult to hunt as the 
deer or wild turkey, and even when found are about as 
tenacious of life as either of these two. Quite recently 1 
found a grove frequented by a few of these wily fellows, 
and spent some time trying to learn something of their 
habits and secure a few good specimens. 
A cornfield stood within about two hundred 3'ards of 
this grove, and I began by watching it; the first evening 
and following morning without success ; but the follow- 
ing afternoon about two o'clock I saw a fine old fellow 
make his appearance headed for the corn, and I was here 
shown how the^' progress when on the ground, as I had 
a plain open view of his progress for fully a hundred 
yards. In moving he stepped along very much like a 
skunk, though a little more rapidly, with his tail slightly 
bent and at an angle of about thirty degrees, stopping 
every ten or fifteen feet to look and listen and then mov- 
ing on again, but with no variation in his manner of 
walking. On reaching the rail fence surrounding the 
cornfield, he did not, as the gray squirrels always do, 
jump up on a rail and stop, but crawled through an opening 
between the two lower rails and quickly disappeared in 
the corn. Afterwards I went to the place where it went 
through the fence, and found a well-worn runway with a 
good many corn shucks scattered near, which led me to 
believe that this was a regular passway for it to and 
from the field. This is not the only fox squirrel that I 
have seen moving around on the ground in feeding, but I 
yet have to see one that moves along in the jerky, jump- 
ing manner of the gray squirrel. 
Later this same afternoon I saw another fox squirrel 
building its nest. When I first saw it it was so far away 
in the top of an immense white oak that I took it for a 
gray squirrel, but, noticing how peculiarly it acted, and, 
the sun striking all at once on the under side of its tail, I 
saw at once that it was what I was after. By crawling 
cautiously and keeping w^ell out of its sight, I was at last 
able to get within about eighty yards of it. It was work- 
ing very industriously, running out along the larger limbs 
and breaking or gnawing off a leafy branch ; but very 
seldom securing a single leaf ; and then rapidly returning 
to where it was building in the upright forks of a large 
The NortherD Fox Pqiiirrel. A gray squirrel, two Nt.: ilit-i n fox squirrels and a 
ground squirrel. 
limb about eighty feet from the ground. After placing 
the leaf3' twig on the pile it had already built, it would 
lie down, but was up again quickly and away after more, 
but I noticed particularly that, though it was fully as 
active as the gray squirrel on the large branches, it kept 
to them in preference to the smaller ones. This was 
further shown the next morning as I stood watching 
one of this species cutting hickory nuts. He didn't jump 
out on the small, slender branches containing the nuts 
with the reckless rapidity of his smaller kin, but went 
cautiously, grasping two or more twigs at a time and 
holding with feet as well as hands. However, the^- are 
quite as quick and active as their smaller brethren on the 
larger, firmer branches. In cutting the hickory nuts 
thej' are held as in all the squirrels, but it is perfectly 
astonishing with what rapidit}' they cut off chunks of 
the shell covering the nut, till it simply rains pieces of 
nuts on the leaves and earth below. In doing this they 
work almost as rapidly again as the smaller squirrels. 
I have never yet heard one of these squirrels make 
